The odd thing is not that Nelson said it...it's that he's accurately describing what they are planning to do, per the quote from the head of the project. Though he describes it as a bag with a string rather than a lasso.

Why spend another day not catching an asteroid in a cup, when you could be catching an asteroid in a cup?

Surely it would be better value for money, and provide more data, to capture two asteroids once you have the 'cup' out there? I look forward to seeing how they do it should such a "two asteroids, one cup" video be made available.

If we can manage to pull this off in a manner that grabs commercial/industrial attention (the discussion is already over on viability of commercial space ventures) we could see a whole new industry crop up over the next few decades.

I remember reading a discussion about how even if an asteroid were made of gold, using today's technologies and practices it would be a cost-prohibitive exercise to bring those materials to Earth... however gold is a terrible example as there are metals out there worth many magnitudes more than their "weight in gold".

It would open a new avenue for the incredibly rare resources that countless next-gen techs rely on. There are lots of hurdles in the way(not just getting to the rock, bringing it back or landing on it but analyzing and picking the right ones that will be productive)

And while it might seem cost prohibitive now vs dealing with China or finding new deposits here on Earth, I would like to see a comparison of environmental impacts between the tons of crap we dump into our environment on one vehicle launch into space vs the massive strip mining projects required to even locate (let alone harvest) a new and significant rare earth deposit somewhere on Earth.

This would either be the most awesome thing since the Apollo landings....or end Earth as we know it when we accidentally lasso some kind of sleeping beast that's been sleeping in orbit for thousands of millennia and thaw it out, thus causing it to eat everything alive on the surface of our planet.

Gyrfalcon:This would either be the most awesome thing since the Apollo landings....or end Earth as we know it when we accidentally lasso some kind of sleeping beast that's been sleeping in orbit for thousands of millennia and thaw it out, thus causing it to eat everything alive on the surface of our planet.

Allowing for a bit of layman's conversion, the senator is actually not too far from the truth. For those questioning the Δv, note that the $100 million is to find the right asteroid - one not only of the right size/composition, but who's current path is conducive to nudging into capture orbit with a reasonable thrust amount.

Shadowtag:I think we take "politicians are wrong about everything" as a given now. Even when they're occasionally right about something, they're wrong because they said it stupidly.

How is

"It really is a clever concept," Nelson said in a press conference in Orlando. "Go find your ideal candidate for an asteroid. Go get it robotically and bring it back."

said stupidly? I mean he simplified an extremely challenging task to basic terms that any idiot can understand but what you get from him is the basic concept of what NASA wants to attempt.

Now Ted Stevens on the other hand "The internet is a series of tubes" tried to do the same thing but he couldn't even understand it on the most simple of levels and so what he said sounded so stupid that the nation collectively face palmed when then heard it.

He said they were going to use an Orion capsule to get it. The Chinese and Russians would go bat shiat insane if they tried an Orion drive. In short, it's a fusion bomb going off behind a solid shield. Lather, rinse and repeat. It could be attempted since small bombs of 200 kt size only weigh 325 pounds (W-89 warhead).

Albino Squid:The odd thing is not that Nelson said it...it's that he's accurately describing what they are planning to do, per the quote from the head of the project. Though he describes it as a bag with a string rather than a lasso.

Why don't we just go study the one at Sun-Earth L4, 2010 TK7? Now just deposit that into my account and get to work. (I know 300m is bigger than you're looking for and you aren't going to want to tow it towards Earth, but I'll bet there are a couple of smaller ones there in the Greek camp that you could slow up a bit.)

Subby: If you want to study an asteroid, all you need to do is lasso one with a robotic spaceship. This according to a US Senator

The Senator:Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., said the plan would speed up by four years the existing mission to land astronauts on an asteroid by bringing the space rock closer to Earth.

Nelson, who is chairman of the Senate science and space subcommittee, said Friday that President Barack Obama is putting $100 million in planning money for the accelerated asteroid mission in the 2014 budget that comes out next week. The money would be used to find the right small asteroid.

"It really is a clever concept," Nelson said in a press conference in Orlando. "Go find your ideal candidate for an asteroid. Go get it robotically and bring it back."

Warlordtrooper:Now Ted Stevens on the other hand "The internet is a series of tubes" tried to do the same thing but he couldn't even understand it on the most simple of levels and so what he said sounded so stupid that the nation collectively face palmed when then heard it.

Which is sad, because, as much of an illiterate dickbag as Sen. Taintlicker Stevens was, he was correct: the Internet is like a series of tubes and they can be filled by people watching movies, such that his email could be delayed. That's how QoS works. The only part he actually got wrong is that this is the preferred behavior under modern flow management systems, and his whining about not receiving the latest Larry Craig nude dancing GIFs is irrelevant.

davidphogan:Albino Squid: The odd thing is not that Nelson said it...it's that he's accurately describing what they are planning to do, per the quote from the head of the project. Though he describes it as a bag with a string rather than a lasso.

What's odd about that?

That a United States Senator said something accurate that sounds ridiculous, rather than their usual habit of saying something ridiculous that sounds ridiculous.